Latest news with #LaPoste
Local France
4 days ago
- Business
- Local France
Cost of a stamp in France to rise 7.4 percent in 2026
This change is part of the multi-year rate framework decided by regulatory body the Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques, des postes et de la distribution de la presse (Arcep), and is intended to 'ensure the sustainability of the universal postal service with high quality in a context of continuing decline in mail volumes.' The cost of posting letters and parcels will increase by an average of 7.4 percent from January 1st, 2026, while rates for Colissimo parcels sent by individuals will increase by an average of 3.4 percent for all destinations (France and international). Meanwhile the cost of sending an international letter will rise from €2.10 to €2.25. Advertisement The timbre rouge (red stamp), which guaranteed next-day delivery for letters, was abolished on January 1st, 2023 . It has been replaced by the e-lettre rouge, a digital service that allows urgent mail to be sent, printed, and delivered by La Poste the next day. The lettre services plus service offers projected two-day delivery for letters and small parcels. La Poste's 2026 price increases are highlighted here. Changes in postage costs in France 2025 2026 Lettre verte €1.39 €1.52 Lettre services plus €3.15 €3.47 e-lettre rouge €1.49 €1.60 Lettre recommandée (up to 20g) €5.74 €6.11 Lettre internationale (up to 20g) €2.10 €2.25 Sticker « suivi » €0.50 €0.50 In 2025, households were expected to spend €28 on annual postage costs, a figure set to fall in 2026 by a forecast 6 percent. Official letters If you need to send letters for official purposes, such as cancelling a gas or electricity contract or sending legal letters, you will usually need to send it by lettre recommandée , or tracked letter. You can also send a lettre recommandée online - La Poste offers an online service which not only sends your letter via a tracked service, it also gives you a model for what to write. Official letters usually require rather formal French, but the La Poste lettre recommendée section gives you several models for common types of letters, so you can just fill in the relevant details like names, dates, places etc. You can find the service HERE .
Times
31-07-2025
- General
- Times
Rural French condemn surprise removal of village postboxes
The 520 inhabitants of Balizac in southwest France discovered that their postbox had been taken out of use when it was taped over. On the other side of France, in the northeast, the 70 residents of Altenbach realised they were going to suffer the same fate when La Poste pinned a note to the village hall noticeboard. The state-controlled postal service said that under a policy to 'rationalise costs', locals would have to post their letters in the neighbouring village. Within days, Altenbach's yellow postbox had been removed from the wall on which it had been fixed for as long as anyone could remember. It has been the same story all over France. La Poste explains that in the era of the internet, and with only six billion letters sent last year — compared with 18 billion in 2008 — many postboxes are redundant. Of the 120,000 boxes still in use, 49 per cent get fewer than two letters a day. Post office managers say upkeep is expensive and vandalism frequent. They point out that they still run a six-day-a-week collection service, but that this means sending postal workers to empty boxes, wasting time and money. They have declined to say how many boxes will be removed, but have suggested that those getting fewer than five letters a day may be under threat. The aim is to have one postbox for every 1,000 people. Although the first French postboxes were distinctly upper class and urban in the 17th century, when Parisian aristocrats sent domestic staff to put letters in them, they spread to the countryside after the 1789 revolution. By the end of the 19th century, there were 50,000 boxes around France. From 1940 to 1961 they were dark or navy blue, and they were painted yellow from 1962. Their disappearance is causing anger and incomprehension in rural communities, where the trend is seen as a sign of the state's disinterest. In Altenbach, where officials explained that on average only one letter a day was sent, villagers pointed out that they would now have to drive to Goldbach, two miles away, simply to post a letter. Hélène Sigrist, a resident, told Radio France, the state radio, that the loss of the postbox was part of wider cuts to local infrastructure that she said 'used to make senior citizens feel respected'. Nathalie Duluc, the mayor of Balizac, was also irritated by the taping up of her village box, particularly because she had been given no warning. 'How can you behave like that? There was no call, no email — nothing except the scorn to which rural mayors are accustomed, alas,' she said. 'Once again, we have been placed in an untenable position because inhabitants complain to us.' The row comes at a time of rural anger over what many communities see as their abandonment by a traditionally interventionist state apparatus. Local schools, police stations, doctors' surgeries and post offices have all been shutting down in recent years. In the Beauvais area north of Paris, the disappearance of village postboxes was the final straw for Caroline Cayeux, the council chairwoman. She denounced what she called an 'incomprehensible and totally unacceptable decision … that will deprive villages of an emblematic public service and drive them deeper into isolation'. Cayeux said many locals 'do not master the internet' and insisted elderly people had a 'fundamental right to put their mail in a postbox'.
Euronews
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Write, seal, and wait: A letter café arrives in Paris
ADVERTISEMENT I have written, in a rough estimate, several hundred letters in my life. Between elderly relatives predisposed to using pen and paper, and far-flung pen-pal paramours, the decade of my twenties was largely taken up with a firm dedication to hard-copy correspondence. The romanticism and endurance of those letters are palpable; no email, text message, or even phone call has the emotional legs of a handwritten note, however short or trivial it may seem at the time of sending. There is a spirit inherent in the work itself, arriving in its sealed package, able to be studied again and again, each reading offering the possibility of new interpretation and deeper meaning. John Donne, writing to diplomat Sir Henry Wotton, declared that 'more than kisses, letters mingle souls.' And like a kiss, a letter carries an element of risk. Will it arrive safely? Will my old-fashioned intentions be taken on faith? Will my words find purchase in a week, a month, a year? There is a fatalism in dropping that paper into the mail slot, to be passed through dozens of hands before reaching its destination. In a moment of historically speedy communication, letter-writing bears the watermark of thoughtfulness, permanence, and trust that the gears of civic society will place value on our sealed words. The world's second letter café, and the first in Europe This is the idea behind Café Pli, a 'letter café', located at 38 rue du Faubourg du Temple, in Paris's 11th arrondissement. Founded by Geneviève Landsmann in July 2024, it is the first of its kind in Europe, inspired by Nuldam Space, a similar concept café in Seoul, South Korea. Guests are invited to choose from an assortment of stationery — envelopes, postcards, stickers, pens and pencils, sealing wax — and write a letter to themselves or another, to be posted on some future date. Sealed envelopes are then slotted into a wall with a niche for every day of the year; simply select the day you wish your letter to be sent, and the attendants of Café Pli will do the rest. To hold the letter for up to a year, the charge is €15, which includes a drink and all the aforementioned writing paraphernalia. If you wish the letter to be held for five years, the price rises to €25. For €45, the letter will be delayed by twenty years. In the event the café goes out of business, they promise all letters will be kept and duly sent by a responsible person. Changes of address can also be requested online, for an extra €10. A €4 surcharge is added for international postage, which covers all countries outside of France, regardless of the continent. Even with all that is included, €15 is a little dear for sending a letter within France. ). A normal first-class French domestic stamp can be had for €2.99 at La Poste. Sending a postcard overseas can be done for as little as €2. Naturally, the trick is in the delay: Café Pli doesn't trade in mail, but in delayed gratification. Write today, mail tomorrow On a recent cool spring afternoon, I visited the 11th arrondissement, also known as Popincourt. The pétanque terrains of the Jules Ferry Square sounded with cheers and the knock of boules colliding, and music and chatter drifted out from the brasseries along the Canal Saint-Martin. Under a cobalt awning, Café Pli was doing fair business. The round bistro tables inside the small, twee and twill interior were taken up by customers, bent over an array of paper, scribbling away on postcards and notepaper, sipping at cups of tea or coffee. The post boxes along one wall were stuffed with hundreds of brown paper envelopes bedecked with stickers and scrawled with addresses: France, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Turkey. The café is also an art hub, regularly hosting workshops on creative writing and calligraphy, linocutting, and watercolour painting. I purchased an international package, selected the least ignominious from the variety of inspiration-type cards ('I Love You,' 'Be Proud of Your Progress,' 'You Are Amazing,' 'You're Doing Great'), and sat down to write. But what does one write to one's future self? Hopes of what is to come? The current reality? As Lewis Carroll remarks in his 1890 pamphlet, Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing, 'Your friend is much more likely to enjoy your wit, after his own anxiety for information has been satisfied.' As the friend in this case was me, the assurance of wit was dubious; I dashed off my feelings and wished myself well. Paris today, Istanbul in a week, and who knew where in the year to go before I would see this card again. I sealed the envelope with a daub of blue wax and stuck it amongst a dozen others waiting to be mailed in May 2026. All of us trusting our words of hope and wit to the process of Café Pli. Another letter in the hundreds of my life, but this time, and for the first time, it would find me again.
Local France
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Local France
French Word of the Day: Poste
Why do I need to know poste? Because this French term simply has too many different meanings. What does it mean? Poste - roughly pronounced to rhyme with tossed (not powsed as some English-speakers do) - is one of those French words most people think they know already. This French noun changes meaning depending on the gender ( la or le ) and the context. For example, you are probably familiar with La Poste, which is the French national postal service. If you send something par la poste , you are sending it by post (or mail). Advertisement On the other hand, un poste (masculine) refers to a position or job, or a work location or premises (for example, un poste de sécurité would be 'the security post/ station'). You might have heard of the popular (and controversial) French TV show Touche pas à mon poste. Confusingly, this translates as 'Don't Touch My TV Set'. The old-fashioned way to describe a television set in French is a poste de télévision or a récepteur de télévision. Over time, people started abbreviating it to either just poste or télé . Once upon a time, people also described a radio set as a poste de radio , though this is not commonly used anymore. And finally, as the world becomes more and more connected by the internet, anglicisms like 'Facebook post' have made their way into French too, much to the dismay of France's Académie Française. However, a blog post or an Instagram post would be written as un post instead of un poste . That said, you might hear a young person say j'ai posté sur Insta (I posted [a picture] on Instagram). Use it like this J'ai accepté un nouveau poste, je vais donc bientôt changer de ville. - I accepted a new position, so I'll soon be moving cities. Avez-vous envoyé la lettre par la poste ? J'espère qu'elle arrivera bientôt. - Did you send the letter through the postal service? Hopefully it arrives soon.
Local France
21-02-2025
- Local France
What is France Identité and can foreigners use it?
As a one-step process for proving your ID or getting access to digital versions of vital documents for French life, France Identité sounds great. However as a foreigner in France, you may not be able to use it. What is France Identité? France Identité is an app created by the French government and providing a secure short-cut to access official websites. It also allows you to provide a digital proof of your ID and/or address when required, and offers an online ID-proof service that allows you to provide proof of your identity without having to divulge personal details to an external website. It's also used to access digital versions of key French documents - at present you can get a digital driving licence, next to be rolled out is the digital carte vitale and it seems likely that other documents will follow. The app is available now as either iOs or Android versions. Who can use it? Here's the bad news - in order to set up an account with France Identité you will need a French ID card, the carte nationale d'identité (CNI). Other forms of ID like a driver's licence, residency permit or passport cannot be used. The carte nationale d'identité is only issued to people who are French citizens - so foreigners cannot use the app unless they have French citizenship. French citizens can use it provided they have the new-style ID card - the ones that are the same size and shape as a credit card. This means that non French nationals cannot use the new digital version of the French driving licence, and will not be able to use the digital version of the carte vitale when that is rolled out, since these are provided via France Identité. In fact anything that offers you a shortcut via France Identité will not be available. Alternatives to using it In good news, the digital versions of the driving licence and carte vitale remain optional, so foreigners will just have to continue using the physical card. Likewise the shortcut to access on French official websites is not available, but you can still get in via entering your email address and password, or by using France Connect. French rail operators SNCF have also announced that France Identité can be used to prove your ID while on a train - but inspectors will still accept proof of ID via other means such as a residency permit or passport. Not to be confused with France Identité is not the same as Identité Numérique - this is another online ID verification tool that allows a shortcut to secure access to French government sites, but instead of being run by the government it is run by La Poste. Identité numérique can be used by some foreigners but not all - if you are not a French or EU citizen you will need to use your residency permit to confirm your identity, and only multi-year cartes de séjour are accepted. Full details on how Identité numérique works HERE. The one useful admin shortcut that everyone can use is France Connect - this is more basic than the two ID apps, but does allow you easier access to French government websites.
